Nixon -- Trump? Debate tomorrow!

Prepare for class debate tomorrow:

President Clinton was impeached 20 years ago due in part to lying under oath.  The special prosecutor asked him about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and the President replied, “I have not had sex with that woman.”  With evidence to contrary, it provided the basis for one article of impeachment.  The “verdict” on this charge was 45 – 55 (67 needed for removal).   President Trump has already submitted written answers to questions posed by Robert Mueller in his Russia investigation, but as the investigation draws closer to President Trump’s inner circle, it appears increasingly likely that Mueller may try to question him further.  Consider the hypothetical, that Mueller issues a subpoena, and President Trump refuses on the basis of executive privilege.   In United States v. Trump, how should the court rule?  With what basis / precedent?  

Post a paragraph discussing your beliefs / comments found from others who are speculating (include source), feel free to explore other classmates posts in preparation for a “debate” in class tomorrow.

Teach us about the Federal Judiciary in 2018

Post a cartoon, a link to a youtube clip, or a portion of or link to a full article that you found interesting about the federal judiciary in this recent year.  Then write a paragraph briefly explaining / summarizing it's meaning.  This is due by Wednesday December 19th.  Skim several classmates and react to 2 of them by Friday's class.

To regulate, or not to regulate?

Regulation of the Economy Prezi

Explore the Prezi linked above.  Choose a fact / claim to explore.  Find another source that enables you to do the following:

Paragraph 1:  Summarize the claim about regulation made in the Prezi.  Be specific and explain whether it is Pro - regulation or anti - regulation.

Paste citation of source you found to explore the claim.  Provide the title of the article that you read as well.

Paragraph 2:  Support / refute / or expand upon the fact / claim made in the Prezi.  Be specific and here again clearly indicate whether it is supportive or opposed to government regulation of the economy.

Due Wednesday Jan. 12th.  

Select a classmate's post to react to.   Agree, disagree or expand upon their post clearly explaining your logic.  This part only needs to be a few sentences.

Due Friday Jan. 14th.

116th Congressional Bulletin (Simulation Blog) - DUE FRIDAY

The voters have not been happy with Congress of late, so both the House and the Senate have begun to blog daily to a public blog to increase transparency in the institution.   Consider that while only House members are allowed to publish to the blog, it does have a healthy readership from across the country.

Partisanship in the blog:  Remember this blog was created to make transparent the inner workings of the "do-nothing-Congress".  Americans are already fed up with you, especially those active enough to read this blog.  Any negativity you feel toward each other should be veiled, and ultimately, as frustration grows in committees, blamed on the other party of course!

Speak respectfully about each other, referring to another Congressperson with both a title and a home state.  Congresswoman / Congressperson / my honorable colleague / etc...) ie. Congresswoman Montana Keys from California

POST TOPIC:  What have you accomplished thus far in this session? What have been your successes and challenges?  What legislation are you working on, and what do you think about it, and why?  Be sure to 
consider your demographics, your goals, party line and cross-pressures as well as the “permanent campaign”!)  What do you want your constituents to know?

EACH POST SHOULD MEET THESE REQUIREMENTS:

1.  BE ROUGHLY A PARAGRAPH

2.  INCLUDE NO LESS THAN 2 VOCABULARY WORDS USED ACCURATELY

3.  INDICATE SOME KNOWLEDGE - OF THE PROCESS

4.  BUILD ON PREVIOUS POSTS

COMMITTEE CHAIRS CREATE A POST TITLED FOR YOUR COMMITTEE.   Everyone else posts inside the stream of your own committee.  House leaders and lobbyists - your committee's stream will provide valuable information as you strategize your way through to affecting the legislation you seek to impact.  Skim the information already posted to avoid redundancy.  Your constituency will appreciate such efficiency out of Congress.

Mid Term Countdown!!

With these two posts, we will become more informed about the 2018 Midterm Elections, widely heralded to be "the most important in a generation".

Pick a race to follow.  Stipulations:  U.S. Congress district / state in one of the non - safe seat races - (a competitive race).  Scroll through previous comments to this post to be sure you are the first to post, or add info as a comment to another student who has selected the same candidate / race you have selected.  You must not post redundant content, so you are required to skim through other posts to avoid this.  Your second post must be a minimum of 12 hours after the first post.

Your first post is due Friday November 2.  
Your second post is due Monday November 5th.

Title your comment:  Senate / State / Candidates names / parties if you are the first to post on that race.

You will write 2 paragraphs, each selecting one of the tasks below.

Start your paragraph with the title below to cue other students who want to add to it.  You do not have to find a race that no one else has done.  If you pick a race someone else has already started, you comment on that same comment to maintain the stream.

In your 2 paragraphs you can choose to do any of the following:

Biography - give background on one or both candidates in the race (3rd party members too if one is relevant in the race)
Horserace - whose ahead, what is helping him/her, the money race (whose ahead in financing / implications)
Contrast - comparing and contrasting the qualitites / weaknesses of the candidates in the race
Issue - Discussing the issues that are of prominence in this particular race as well as how it is benefiting / hurting the candidate / s
Ad Reaction - Post a link to an ad from this race and react to it.  Is it effective?  Is it negative?  Who funded it?  Implications?

Post links to sources used underneath paragraphs.

Environmental Policy

Students will watch video found at:  1.5 to Stay Alive, and read article We Have Twelve Years to Limit Climate Change Catastrophe Warns UN, then students will search according to their assigned perspective below to crowd source more information on this topic.  From their research, they need to post the two paragraph standard work, the first is a summary, the second their reaction.
Perspectives:

1.  United Nations
2.  United States' Environmental Protection Agency
3.  President Trump
4.  Congress / Courts
5.  Other nations / States (like California)

Title their comment as follows,
Perspective:  Title of article (and be sure and include link to article).  This is Due Friday by class.

Crowd Sourcing "President Trump's Trade War"?

Watch the Vox video below. 

Trade Wars Explained

Find an article from a quality source that dives deeper into some aspect you wanted to know more about or is analyzing its impact.   Title your post the article's title, and include the link.

Write a paragraph summary and a paragraph reaction.  You do not need to talk about the bias of your article unless it is clearly slanted, in which that should at least be acknowledged.
This is due Monday 9/24.

Read and comment on two classmates posts by class time on Friday 9/28.

Rule of Law?

Search and post an article addressing the topic discussed during bell ringer Tuesday - or the article read and discussed in class on Thursday.  There has been much discussed and written about in the news since, so there should be a ton of analysis to consider.  As before, title your post the title of the article.  Include a link to your article.  Write a paragraph summary and a second paragraph reaction and / or pose questions about the content.   

This is due no later than Sunday midnight.

Students should interact with eachother's post.  Specifically, a minimum requirement is that I can find that you posted comments to at least two classmates' posts.  These comments should include evidence that you had read and thought about classmates' ideas.

Two comments are due no later than Friday's class - the 14th.

Don’t rush into harming the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

     Last year there was some language hidden in the tax bill about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This language was mandating leasing on the coastal plain without any public input. This winter administration is wanting to begin three-dimensional seismic exploration. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already deemed this seismic application as insufficient for review. In order to use this application, the tundra and wildlife will be severely affected, especially the polar bear. Even already knowing this, the Bureau of Land Management, or the BLM, finds the fact that the tundra and wildlife will be affected as insignificant. This all is shocking to me, how could one put the lives of animals behind you to use an application you have been informed is already insufficient? Part of me is just astounded and the other part is just upset with this fact.

     This article is from the source of The Washington Post. On our provided chart, WP falls on the line between news and fair interpretations of the news as well as on the line between neutral and skews liberal. However, this article is a "Letter to the Editors", or as it is labeled on the website as an opinion article. The author, Kristen Miller, is the Alaska Wilderness League conservation director. Throughout the article, she provided links for some of her less opinionated sentences. I could tell that this was a bias article though. Some of the comments she made on the BLM leaders and their view on the public's opinion. With her career, this makes the article a self interested article as she is the conservation director, so she would want us to be on her side.


Article Link Don't rush into harming the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Trump says he is optimistic Canada will join trade deal as Friday deadline looms | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/29/trump-says-he-is-optimistic-canada-will-join-trade-deal.html

Trump says he is optimistic Canada will join trade deal as Friday deadline looms

President Trump said last Wednesday that he is optimistic that Canada will join the new trade deal he is creating with Mexico, saying it would be better for them as well. He has set the date until Canada has to make the decision to join the deal or not by Friday. The Prime Minister has made it clear he plans to have a decision by Trump's deadline. Canada's foreign minister said trade negotiations were intense and they were looking for a "win-win" situation on both sides. According to Larry Kudlow, if the deal falls through he may have to put auto tariffs on Canada. Trump and some of his other officials have hinted at the fact they wouldn't be mad if they only moved on with Mexico. I think it's good he is adding Mexico to NAFTA. Some economists are saying he's basically making a NAFTA 2.0 which is good because apparently Mexico is supposed to buy lots of farm crop from the U.S. as agreed inside the new agreement. 

The source is from CNBC which looks to be one of the most non-bias fact reporting media out there. While reading, I did not see much of what it looked like to be authors opinion and instead just fact-based reporting. For the N in the ImVain acronym, I saw multiple cited quotes from people like Trump and Canada's foreign minister. Regarding the V, multiple times in the article their information was backed up by a quote from the person they were talking about. Finally, regarding the overall bias of the article, I think this article is not bias and just providing information about how Trump's trade deal with Canada and Mexico is progressing and what is to come in the coming days. 

Fight Fake News!

Select a political news story reported within the last two days on a topic of your choice from a source of your choice.  

1.  Title your comment with the name of your article, and link the url to that title.

2.  Write one paragraph summarizing the topic covered and your reaction to it.  

3.  Write a second paragraph addressing the accuracy / bias of the article.  Be sure to mention where the source fits on the chart above as well as TWO indicators from the IMVAIN criteria.

This is due by Wednesday midnight.  

4.  Comment on a classmate's post by Friday's class.  Your comment should evidence that you at least read and thought about the content of your classmate's post.

Politics in the Budget

Read the following Washington Post article on the Budget Deal likely to be passed later this week.  Within this article you will find many terms and examples of politics we have discussed already, as well as some we have not discussed.  After reading the article, you must post two things.  They may be together or they may be housed in 2 separate posts.

Winners and Losers in the Big Spending Bill , 3/22/2018

1.  Write a paragraph reaction, titled:  REACTION - to some aspect of the bill.
2.  Write a paragraph question, titled:  (you guessed it), QUESTION - about something in the article.  It may be about a term you don't understand, or the reasoning behind some decision discussed in the bill, for example.  In this post you ask the question, then you post a link to an article that you think you may have found all or part of the answer.  Also, answer your own question (at least partly) in this paragraph.
3.  While there is no requirement for reacting to each others' posts, you are encouraged to do so.  Maybe you have more information to contribute to someone's question.

This blog post will be in play for a couple weeks to give you time read through the content posted by both classes.  You will need to do this because 1. you will learn a lot from eachotehr (crowd sourcing) and 2. I will assign a quiz based on the content discussed in the article and your blog posts.

Dates of relevance:

Tuesday April 3rd:  Posts due
Friday April 6th:  Quiz

Influence of Money in Elections

Find an article from a reputable source that takes a position on the influence of money in politics.  Please choose an article that is IDEOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT FROM YOUR OWN.

1. Title your comment to this post with the title of your article.  

2.  Paste the url of the article you used.

3.  In one paragraph, summarize the key points of the article.

4.  In a second paragraph react to the author's points.                15 points

This is due by Wednesday midnight (3/7).

5.  Comment on two other classmate's articles.  In your comment be sure and react but contribute something new to the dialogue (not just "I agree with you for the same reasons you have stated"...)

This is due by Thursday at midnight (3/8).           10 points

Interest Groups at Work

Find a quality article that addresses interest groups in the policy making process.

1.  Title it the title of the article.
2.  Write a paragraph summary of the article.
3.  Make a course connection about the content in the article (relating to interest groups).

2 quality paragraphs completing the above worth 12 pts..  Due by next Wednesday at midnight.
2 comments / reactions to classmates posts due by Thurday at midnight.   8 pts.

Recent news about interest groups may address guns, immigration, budget, 2018 midterm election...   You may come up with your own as well.

Foreign Policy Under President Trump

Find an article from a reputable source that informs you about President Trump and the foreign policy of his presidency thus far.  

1. Title your comment to this post with the title of your article.  

2.  Paste the url of the article you used.

3.  In one paragraph, summarize the key points of the article.

4.  In a second paragraph react to the author's points.                15 points

This is due by Wednesday midnight.

5.  Comment on two other classmate's articles.  In your comment be sure and react but contribute something new to the dialogue (not just "I agree with you for the same reasons you have stated"...)

This is due by Monday at midnight.            10 points

Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy

EXPLORE THE TOPIC HERE

Visit the site above and read / skim articles that challenge your thinking.  Post AS A COMMENT TO THIS post answers to the discussion prompts below.  

(Paste and fill out)

1. confusing -

2. suprising -

3. important -

1.  One thing CONFUSING / something you did not understand.
2.  One thing SURPRISING / something you did not know before and were surprised to learn.
3.  One thing that is IMPORTANT to know about (most significant).

If you are referring to content from one particular article, use a parethetical citation immediately after your reference with its location on the contiuum (LCR) and a short version of the title, such as:  (C - Trump Asks Congress)

You must also comment on at least one other classmate's post.  Both of these are due by Friday's class.

Trumps Lies

This article as a whole discusses constant inaccuracies within Trumps constant and unbearable free speech. He has shown time and time again that he is not always very tight to the truth and overall that he cannot hold back if questioned or given any real challenges. The author of this article gives examples ranging from early lies from Trump in a wild speech at the CIA to lies about racism where he contradicts himself when he is not on the big screen. He also talks about how even the timing of some of Trumps lies can be seen as trickery. In the conclusion of this article the author tells us that Trump has been more transparent than any president we have ever had and leaves it to the reader to decipher if that is a good or bad trait.

I feel that this article for me may have played towards confirmation bias because I do believe that Trump should watch his mouth and become more careful with his words. My main takeaway from this article is the fact that Trump though his followers and clean up crew would like to hide is a pathological and not so good liar. He lies when unnecessary and he cant be trusted to not push out fake news of his own. I think that this article may be slightly left leaning but overall I feel that even if that would be true this article gave several facts that are indisputable because they are direct quotes which cannot be taken back or deleted like a tweet.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-lies-honesty.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

POST AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST - DO NOT CREATE YOUR OWN POST!!!

Below is a clip from original post - link is not live.  Instead use this link:

Real Clear Politics - USE THIS ONE!!!

Donald Trump Decides not to visit Southern London

I read the article known as, "Trump Won't Visit London to Open Embassy, His U.K. Critics Say He Got the Message." This article was written by Stephen Castle and Austin Ramsey of the New York Times. The gist of this article is that Donald Trump backed out of visiting the opening ceremony for the new embassy in southern London. He stated in a tweet that his reason for not attending was selling the "Finest embassy for peanuts." (President Trump, Twitter,Jan. 11th, 2018) Many people in Britain believe that he was scared off by their threat of protests. Ed Miliband said "Nope, It's because no one wanted you to come, and you got the message." (Ed Miliband, Twitter, Jan. 12th, 2018)

My personal opinion lies with Donald Trump instead of the SJW's in Britain. If I were President Trump, I wouldn't have come either, because President Trump deals with more than his fair share of criticism. I think that his decision not to attend the opening ceremony was justified, because of the deteriorating condition of British society.

Amazon's 2nd Head Quarters

https://slate.com/business/2018/01/amazon-is-totally-putting-hq2-in-d-c-right.html

Amazon is building a second headquarters somewhere in the United States and a variety of cities are trying everything they can to get Amazon's business. An Amazon headquarters would need a city that has a strong international airport and highway system. Many cities offer these credentials, so Amazon has thus far only been able to narrow their choices down to a still grand 20 different US cities, three of which are near Washington D.C. This second headquarters would employ 50,000 highly educated and highly paid individuals along with helping develop the local university and metropolitan area. Amazon has the opportunity to completely rebuild and upgrade the economic status of any city in the U.S. While some cities are begging Amazon to come to them out of pity, other cities are offering stunts, tax breaks, and other economic carrots to persuade their business. Either way, wherever Amazon chooses to put their new head quarters, it will be a great new addition to a U.S. city.

I believe that no matter where Amazon chooses to have their new headquarters, it will benefit the U.S. Amazon has narrowed their choices down to 20 different cities but in reality, some of those cities must be better than others for hiring employees and developing quality logistics. I believe that in this highly competitive world, Amazon will end up choosing the best city for their business rather than the best city to rebuild for the greater benefit of the nation. Even so, this new headquarters will simply make whichever city it is better, thus making a great city even greater. My hopes are that Amazon takes action in the local university (like they promised) and further the engineering and computer science programs of the university. This way Amazon can not only increase the economic status of the city, but also ensure a future of the U.S. pumping out more quality employees to advance American businesses. It is nice to see such a quality businesses expanding in the U?S.

Eminem and Gandhi are right. The future will lean pro-lif

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2018/01/18/eminem_and_gandhi_are_right_future_will_lean_pro-life_431791.html

    The article I read is “Eminem and Gandhi are right. The future will lean pro-life.” The main issue that the article pushes is that having a stance for pro-life is not derived from religion. Only 40% of people consider Christmas a Christian holiday, but many more are pro-life supporters. The article gives examples such as Eminem, Gandhi, and Nat Hentoff who are non-religious pro-life supporters. One of the big reasons the article believes pro-lifers will continue without religion is because of the support given to by music. The article provides lyrics from bands such as The Sex Pistols, Kid Rock, Alpha Blondy, and Ben Folds Five who all write about why abortion is bad. A now popular song “River” was said to be Eminem being mad at the woman for getting an abortion showing that even now, people are still writing and making music about abortion. The big question the article basically proposing is that because Christianity is already depleting and there are still pro-life supporters, why would that change in the future? The answer they give is it wouldn’t partially because of music.

    I tend to agree with the article because I believe it makes a very good point. Just because pro-life supporters have a reputation of being Christian does not mean the reputation is law. With the percentage of pro-life supporters being higher than Christians it shows that people do not only take that stance because of religious purposes. With media influences it is easy to influence millennials one way or another. If pro-life supporters continue to throw their stance in millennial’s feed I believe they will continue to gain support. The same as media goes with music as shown through previous artists. Music has shown to have a major impact and be very influential to not only millennials but to everyone. I agree with the article and believe that if the pro-life stance is supported and continuously pushed through music and social media, millennials and later generations as well will tend to lean more pro-life whether they are Christians or not. 

Zweifel- Will Trump’s Economy Trump Trump

https://www.city-journal.org/html/can-trump-economy-trump-trump-15679.html
     Trump’s economic policies are having some success. New jobs are being created, and GDP and wages are rising. Economic growth is at its highest point in the last 13 years. In addition, the index of small business optimism is the highest it has ever been in the 45 year history of the survey. However, Trump’s ratings have not gone up. More people attribute this economic success to Obama. If Trump doesn’t stop undermining himself the credit deserved will not be given.
     I feel like the economic portion of this, which is the main part, is what is truly important. Many people were scared that Trump’s tax reform would devastate the economy, but it is having the opposite of that effect. The economy is growing, unemployment is down, and wages are rising. While some of these trends began during Obama’s administration, they have increased during Trump’s. I think he is not getting the credit he is due because of how often he makes a fool of himself. Whether it’s some dumb tweet or a comment he made to the public, as long as he is perceived as a fool he will not get any positive press.

FOR ALL FUTURE POSTS - Please comment to my post BELOW (NOT THIS ONE) rather than create a post of your own.

Karsten and Ty, yours are fine where they are for now, but the rest of you, see the post below Ty's that says "Second Semester Policy Introduction....".  It is as a comment to that the rest of your posts should be. 

Congress hurtles towards shutdown - Karsten Martin

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/18/government-shutdown-2018-trump-republicans-345532

Even though many people want Congress to approve a budget plan that will keep the government open, it looks as though problems in the Senate will force a government shutdown Friday. The Senate needs 60 votes to keep the government open, but because the spending plan does not include anything about the young immigrants that could be deported at any time, many Democrats have refused to vote for it. The plan mainly addresses the Children's Healthcare Insurance Program, which many Republicans are trying to get passed as a long-term solution. Multiple Senators believe that the Friday vote will either end in a short extension of funding and fast negotiations, or in the government shutting down and both parties trying to pin the blame on the other. If Senators, both Democrat and Republican, continue their bickering over the plan, a government shutdown Friday is inevitable.

While I do believe that the new spending plan should have at least addressed DACA, I do not get why Senators cannot put their differences aside and pass a plan that would be best for the US. If Senators could just stop bickering, then a plan would easily get passed. While I understand that Trump shut down an earlier plan to protect immigrants, it still should not be leading to a government shutdown. Also, I think that it is really stupid that a lot of the Senators seem to be more focused on pinning the blame on other parties instead of focusing on the plan. I do not think a spending plan will be approved Friday, or anytime soon, if Senators continue to work in this way.

Welcome to S-Town - Ty Callahan

http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/politicians-trump-s-town

Newly elected Senators Doug Jones and Tina Smith have been welcomed to the chaos and dysfunction of the United States Senate.  Their first weeks in office included childish debate and accusations regarding whether or not the President called Africa and Haiti a "sh**hole". Due in part to this off-task behavior, many speculate that the impending government funding bill will not be passed and the United States government will shut down this Friday. This failure will most likely result in an additional short term spending bill, thus pushing back the possibility of a long term solution. The current legislature is not fixing problems, but creating additional ones.

The deadline for the government funding bill has been set for quite some time. Yet, the current legislature continues to create a long term solution. A justifiable reason for the delay would be differences in political and economical beliefs. However, the funding bill has been pushed back due to self inflicted wounds in the Senate. The bickering over if someone said or did not say something is unacceptable and delays the goals of every party. Although unlikely, I hope the government funding bill comes to fruition before the deadline tomorrow.

Second Semester Policy Introduction - Crowd Sourcing

In order to become more knowledgable about current policy issues, select an article from the link below.

Real Clear Politics 

Post a link to your article, and start your comment with the title of the article.  Then write one paragraph summary of the main ideas from the article and one paragraph about your reaction to the content.  This reaction could include your opinions or what you don't understand / what questions the content leaves you with.  This is due by Friday at midnight.  Reacting to classmates post (reading and reacting to three different posts - all different articles) is due by Thursday at midnight.